Race - Greater Greater WashingtonPosts with the tag Race.http://greatergreaterwashington.org/tag/race/
en-usIf racial inequities didn't exist, DC would look like this...http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34327/if-racial-inequities-didnt-exist-dc-would-look-like-this/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/mkoehler/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Matthew Koehler</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Across DC, black and Hispanic residents see a lot less socio-economic success than white residents, and many argue that's because the playing field is not level when it comes to opportunities for success. The charts below show what DC would look like if minorities got a fair shake, according to <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.urban.org/features/vision-equitable-dc', '34327')" href="http://www.urban.org/features/vision-equitable-dc" style="color: black">a recent study</a>.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/15078951261/', '34327')" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/15078951261/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201611/301705.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Photo by Ted Eytan on Flickr.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>There are big racial disparities in DC</b></p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Generally speaking, DC's biggest pockets of black residents are in the east, Hispanic residents are in the north, and white residents are in the west. But according to DC's Urban Institute, white homeowners have more freedom to choose where to live: between 2010-2014, they could afford 67 percent of all homes sold in the District and all homes in Ward 8. Black and Hispanic homebuyers, on the other hand, could only afford 9.2 percent and 29 percent of homes sold, respectively. s
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Affordable rentals are also hard to come by for minorities, who the report says spend 30 percent or more of their monthly income on rent&mdash;<wbr>an amount that experts say make a houshold "<a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33655/rent-in-our-region-is-expensive-does-that-mean-its-unaffordable/', '34327')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33655/rent-in-our-region-is-expensive-does-that-mean-its-unaffordable/" style="color: black">rent-burdened</a>," and that the report refers to as "cost burdened." East of the Anacostia River, black residents can afford 67 percent of the rentals, but west of Rock Creek Park, only 7 percent of the rentals are affordable.
<div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.urban.org/features/vision-equitable-dc', '34327')" href="http://www.urban.org/features/vision-equitable-dc" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201611/301658-1.png" style="border: 0"></a><br>All images from Urban Institute. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>There's a reason things are this way</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">While the study acknowledges that in recent years, the recession hit minority groups harder than it hit whites, it's rooted in the acknowledgement that the above racial disparities are rooted in trends that have existed for much longer.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Minority groups have been traditionally barred from upward socioeconomic mobility by private actions and public policies for generations. Historically, it has been difficult for blacks to get mortgages, they were limited in who they could buy from, and they faced strict zoning restrictions. They were also <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.urban.org/research/publication/color-wealth-nations-capital/view/full_report', '34327')" href="http://www.urban.org/research/publication/color-wealth-nations-capital/view/full_report" style="color: black">prevented from getting better paying jobs</a>, and when the federal government cut funding, poor black communities were usually affected most.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Over time, this has prevented minority communities from sharing in socioeconomic progress as a whole. This has meant a steeper barrier over time&mdash;<wbr>one that the Urban Institute study calls inequitable.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Here's how those inequities play out in terms of wages, and what DC would look like without them:</b>
<div id="urban_labor_force"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">With housing and childcare in the District being very expensive, many DC families struggle to earn a living wage, but minority families face steep challenges covering costs.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">According the Urban Institute, "the living wage for a parent to support a two children should be $38.01/ hour, or $79,000/ year," but a majority of minority families are below that threshold, around $75,000/ year. Only 44 percent of whites are below this threshold.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">"East of the Anacostia, four out of five black residents working full time earned less than this living wage," the report says, and 70% of black and Hispanic families working full time make below the living wage. However, with the many service industry jobs that minorities occupy, bridging this gap is difficult.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>If DC were more equitable, poverty levels would look like this:</b>
<div id="urban_poverty"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Despite economic growth since the 2008 recession, communities of color have not yet recovered, and are in fact worse off than before the crash. In 2014, there were a recorded <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.dcfpi.org/while-dc-continues-to-recover-from-recession-communities-of-color-continue-to-face-challenges%E2%80%9D', '34327')" href="http://www.dcfpi.org/while-dc-continues-to-recover-from-recession-communities-of-color-continue-to-face-challenges%E2%80%9D" style="color: black">18,000 more unemployed African Americans than in 2007</a>, with a quarter of the black population now living below the poverty line.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">On average, the poverty level for black residents is at 26 percent, with Ward 8 being the worst at 30 percent; white poverty in DC, on the other hand, stands at 7.4 percent. The report also shows that white child poverty is virtually zero, while the poverty rate for black children is 38 percent and 22 percent for Hispanic children. If things were more equitable, the report says, "no child would be poor."
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Here's what the employment picture would look like:</b>
<div id="urban_gdp"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In DC, black unemployment is 5.5 times that of whites at 19.5 percent, which is above the national average of 16.1 percent. In a city where minority employment reflected white employment, "2,200 more Hispanic residents and 24,000 more black residents would be employed."
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The fact that many of DC's fastest growing job sectors require some post secondary education has severe consequences for unemployment, too.
<div id="urban_education"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Minority communities also face steep inequities in education, which have far ranging effects on choice of housing, wages, employment, and even general health. Most whites ages 25 and u, have a high school diploma or GED and some level of college education, whereas 31 percent of Hispanics and only 17 percent of blacks don't have a high school diploma or GED.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Further, only half of black and Hispanic communities have some level of education beyond high school. If the education gap didn't exist, according to the study, 50,000 black and Hispanic residents would have at least a GED, and almost 98,000 black residents would have some post secondary education.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Changing all of this would raise the quality of living for everyone</b>
<div id="urban_births"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">A more racially fair society, the study says, would have substantial economic benefits for everyone. When people earn more they invest and spend more, which would benefit local businesses and education. In fact, they estimate that "DC's economy would have been 65 billion dollars larger in 2012", if many of these inequality gaps were closed.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">However, the limit of this data analysis is in showing what, exactly, equality looks like. Citizens and policymakers need to understand how and why this inequality persists today and pursue policy agendas that would actually close these gaps.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">What agendas do you think policy makers should pursue to close the racial inequality gap?
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<p style="margin-top: 1em"><i>Note: Some readers have reported that when viewing this post expanded on the home page, the embedded tool doesn't work. It should work if you are viewing the post on its own page; click <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34327/if-racial-inequities-didnt-exist-dc-would-look-like-this/', '34327')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34327/if-racial-inequities-didnt-exist-dc-would-look-like-this/" style="color: black">here to go there</a></i>.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><i class=closer_lines>Correction: This post previously committed a word, saying "31 percent of Hispanics and only 17 percent of blacks have a high school diploma or GED" when those figures are for the percentage of each population that <b>does not</b> have a diploma or GED.</i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34327/if-racial-inequities-didnt-exist-dc-would-look-like-this/#comments">30 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=34327Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:05:00 EDTGOP out of citieshttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34121/gop-out-of-cities/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/syates/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Steven Yates</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Today, Democrats tend to be from dense areas, while Republicans come from more rural ones. But <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://nyti.ms/2fb8PXw', '34121')" href="http://nyti.ms/2fb8PXw" style="color: black">that hasn't always been the case</a>. Race is the biggest factor that made the GOP abandon cities and urban policies. (NYT)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34121/gop-out-of-cities/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=34121Mon, 07 Nov 2016 08:49:00 EDTWhat inner city?http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34122/what-inner-city/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/syates/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Steven Yates</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Donald Trump is attempting to appeal to African Americans by <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.urban.org/2016-analysis/problem-talking-about-inner-cities?utm', '34122')" href="http://www.urban.org/2016-analysis/problem-talking-about-inner-cities?utm" style="color: black">focusing on "inner cities"</a>. But inner cities are poorly defined and African Americans live across metropolitan areas, not just central cities. (Urban Institute)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34122/what-inner-city/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=34122Mon, 07 Nov 2016 08:49:00 EDTRace and richeshttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34072/race-and-riches/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/ncacozza/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Nicole Cacozza</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Race is a major factor in economic security in DC, according to a recent study. White households have a median net worth that's <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/20839309/white-dc-area-households-have-a-net-worth-81-times-greater-than-black-ones', '34072')" href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/20839309/white-dc-area-households-have-a-net-worth-81-times-greater-than-black-ones" style="color: black">81 times higher</a> than in black households, and white residents are <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_disparate_demographics_of_wealth_in_the_dc_area/11845', '34072')" href="http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_disparate_demographics_of_wealth_in_the_dc_area/11845" style="color: black">more likely to be homeowners</a> with a higher median home value than black residents. (WCP, Urban Turf)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34072/race-and-riches/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=34072Wed, 02 Nov 2016 09:00:00 EDTAnd...http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34022/and/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/jpierce/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Joanne Pierce</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">More than 40 children and several adults were injured when a <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://wtop.com/dc/2016/10/buses-crash-in-dc-send-43-students-to-hospital/', '34022')" href="http://wtop.com/dc/2016/10/buses-crash-in-dc-send-43-students-to-hospital/" style="color: black">school bus and Metrobus collided</a> in Northeast. (WTOP) ... New water pipes in Montgomery and Prince George's <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/wssc-begins-installing-new-water-pipes-designed-to-last-a-century/2016/10/27/4d63564e-9bbd-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html', '34022')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/wssc-begins-installing-new-water-pipes-designed-to-last-a-century/2016/10/27/4d63564e-9bbd-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html" style="color: black">should last a century</a>. (Post) ... Prepping for (or avoiding) the Marine Corp Marathon this weekend? Here's <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://wtop.com/marine-corps-marathon/2016/10/theres-just-running-marathon-weekend/', '34022')" href="http://wtop.com/marine-corps-marathon/2016/10/theres-just-running-marathon-weekend/" style="color: black">some advice</a>, including apps and shuttle information. (WTOP)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/34022/and/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=34022Fri, 28 Oct 2016 08:50:00 EDTNational links: Don't shame the transit ridershttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33808/national-links-dont-shame-the-transit-riders/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/jwood/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Jeff Wood</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Uber took down some ads that shamed transit riders, Texas researchers are looking at how race, gender, and development intersect, and a new book explains that cities weren't always bastions for Democrats. Check out what's happening around the world in transportation, land use, and other related areas!
<div class="blog_image_right" style="width: 190px; float: right; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/2611293086/', '')" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/2611293086/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201610/071614.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Photo by Anthony Easton on Flickr.</div><p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Uber's advertising effect:</b> Uber and Lyft often have run ads that belittle transit riders. Transit planner Jarrett Walker recently decided he'd had enough, calling Uber out for an anti-transit stance that he says promotes congestion and social stratification. Soon thereafter, an Uber executive <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://humantransit.org/2016/10/speech-has-consequences-or-why-i-took-on-uber-yesterday.html', '33808')" href="http://humantransit.org/2016/10/speech-has-consequences-or-why-i-took-on-uber-yesterday.html" style="color: black">saw to it that the ad came down</a>. If ads like this keep running, Walker says, it signals a tacit agreement that we should starve cities of the transportation options they need and deserve. (Human Transit)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Race, gender, and the built environment:</b> The University of Texas at Austin will launch a first-of-its-kind program to study the intersection of race, gender, city planning, and development. In <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://dtrnsfr.us/2dMMb86', '33808')" href="http://dtrnsfr.us/2dMMb86" style="color: black">this interview</a>, Professors Anna Brand and Andrea Roberts discuss why they are keen to expand the definition of planning and preservation and how Austin is a great place to be thinking about these issues. (Metropolis Magazine)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>How cities went blue:</b> During the time of the US' founding, pretty much everyone in politics disliked cities, as they were seen as places of corruption and vice. But now, as cities are becoming more and more popular, cities have become a stronghold for Democrats. Read about the history of anti-urbanism and the move toward our current landscape in <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://dtrnsfr.us/2dTisdT', '33808')" href="http://dtrnsfr.us/2dTisdT" style="color: black">a review</a> of Steven Conn's Americans Against the City. (Los Angeles Review of Books)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>White House vs. parking:</b> Last week's <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33678/the-obama-administration-says-zoning-is-at-the-heart-of-some-huge-economic-problems/', '33808')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33678/the-obama-administration-says-zoning-is-at-the-heart-of-some-huge-economic-problems/" style="color: black">White House paper</a> about why we need more housing and how cities can make it happen was the talk of the urbanism world. A major part was its <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://bit.ly/2dv3NFD', '33808')" href="http://bit.ly/2dv3NFD" style="color: black">push for less required parking</a>, as parking drives up housing costs and stresses the transportation network. While the White House's toolkit has no teeth to enact reform, it is refreshing to see ideas like these from the top. (Wired)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Look Mom, no signals:</b> The first <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://dtrnsfr.us/2dQIKxf', '33808')" href="http://dtrnsfr.us/2dQIKxf" style="color: black">Dutch-style unsignalized intersection</a> in the United States just went in near the campus of Texas A&M University. The hope is that moving cyclists in front of car traffic at the intersections and painting the lanes green with solar luminescent paint will make vulnerable road users will be more visible, meaning drivers will be less likely to hit them. (Texas Transportation Institute)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Connecting Boston's 2 halves:</b> Boston's commuter rail network is <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://bit.ly/2dhYM0e', '33808')" href="http://bit.ly/2dhYM0e" style="color: black">split in two: a north and a south half</a>. Advocates have long been working to connect the two so the entire system functions more efficiently, but haven't had any luck. Now, there's a greater sense of urgency, as a plan to expand a key station would effectively kill hopes of a north-south rail link. Activists hope that building the connection will take precedent. (Boston Magazine)
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>A new ride hailing service in town</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Since Uber and Lyft left Austin, new companies have filled the void. One of them is RideAustin, which is now one of the leading ride hailing providers in the city. Co-founder Andy Tryba sat down to talk about why they started the company, while Jerry, a driver for RideAustin, discussed the new city fingerprinting requirement. Check out what they had to say on Episode 7 of my show, Transit Trends:
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/37kkufL8k2s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33808/national-links-dont-shame-the-transit-riders/#comments">13 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=33808Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:50:00 EDTWhat do parents want? A good school, not too far, and some other kids that look like themhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33297/what-do-parents-want-a-good-school-not-too-far-and-some-other-kids-that-look-like-them/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/sglazerman/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Steven Glazerman</span></a> and <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/ddotter/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Dallas Dotter</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Rich or poor, black or white, a family's decision of where to enroll their child in school is one of the most important, gut-wrenching, and revealing choices they can make. In DC, parents can choose from over 200 charter and district schools. By analyzing that data for a recent study, we were able to shed some light on what drives parents' choices.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016', '33297')" href="https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/schoolchoice.png" style="border: 0"></a><br>Images from the study.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>What we analyzed</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">As in other cities, any DC student in kindergarten through grade 12 has a right to attend a neighborhood public school based on his or her home address. But students can also enter a lottery for an open spot at any neighborhood school or public charter school in the city.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In 2014, DC moved from separate lotteries for each school to a common system, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.myschooldc.org/', '33297')" href="http://www.myschooldc.org/" style="color: black">MySchoolDC</a>, where applicants rank up to 12 schools. A random lottery process chooses which students get the spots at any school which has more applicants than spaces.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016', '33297')" href="https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016" style="color: black">a recent study for Mathematica Policy Research</a> we had the opportunity to analyze over 20,000 rank-ordered lists that parents submitted in 2014, the first year of the unified lottery. We combined these lists with data describing characteristics of the students and their families, the schools themselves, and information on household and school neighborhoods, including crime and demographics.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">This allowed us to estimate the importance parents place on different school attributes, including commuting distance, transit access, test score proficiency rates, programmatic offerings, the school's racial-ethnic composition, the percentage of disadvantaged students, school neighborhood characteristics, and a variety of other factors.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.myschooldc.org/', '33297')" href="http://www.myschooldc.org/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/myschooldc.png" style="border: 0"></a><br>MySchoolDC.org.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">DC is a city of liberal values and unconscious biases, of racial diversity and racial tension, of rich and poor, newly arrived and long-time residents. Parents' individual decisions add up to collective social outcomes, patterns of racial and class composition, that have lasting effects on the social fabric of DC.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/choosing-a-school-for-my-daughter-in-a-segregated-city.html', '33297')" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/choosing-a-school-for-my-daughter-in-a-segregated-city.html" style="color: black">a moving piece</a> in the New York Times capturing these themes as they played out in her gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. The same issues come into stark relief in DC.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>What parents value when choosing schools</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The analysis suggests that parents do prefer schools close to home, but (not surprisingly) they are willing to tolerate a longer commute to a school with higher test scores.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The preference for academic performance was quite strong: if two schools were identical in every way except for their <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://osse.dc.gov/service/dc-esea-accountability-classification-forms-amo-listings-flexibility-waiver-highlights', '33297')" href="http://osse.dc.gov/service/dc-esea-accountability-classification-forms-amo-listings-flexibility-waiver-highlights" style="color: black">"tier" rating</a>, parents would travel an average of seven miles for a school in the highest category over one with the lowest.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Academic performance was not the only factor. We also found that parents choose schools based on the race and income of students, but did not weight that as strongly.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Parents tend to rank schools higher if there are more students in the same racial or ethnic group as their own children. But the strength of this "own-group" preference differs by grade level, the applicant's race/ethnicity, and the percentage of a school's students in the child's own group.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">If the own-group percentage is low, parents show a strong preference against a school. But as the percentage rises, the relationship weakens and even becomes negative, suggesting a taste for diversity.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In short, parents on average seem to want their children to not be in the vast minority at their school, but as long as there are some students of similar racial or ethnic backgrounds, this stops being a priority. (More detailed results are available in the technical paper <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://mathematica-mpr.com/our-publications-and-findings/publications/market-signals-evidence-on-the-determinants-and-consequences-of-school-choice-from-a-citywide', '33297')" href="https://mathematica-mpr.com/our-publications-and-findings/publications/market-signals-evidence-on-the-determinants-and-consequences-of-school-choice-from-a-citywide" style="color: black">here</a>).
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The analysis found that typical middle school parents would be willing to send their children over two miles farther just to get from a school where 10% of students share the child's race/ethnicity to one with 20%. But if choosing between schools with 40% or 50% of the same race/ethnicity, they would only be wiling to travel a half mile more to school.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Does choice affect segregation?</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">One fierce debate in education is about whether school choice&mdash;<wbr>the policy allowing families to select a school besides the local one&mdash;<wbr>worsens segregation. Some people may opt out of higher-poverty schools or those with high numbers of racial and ethnic minorities. Does this entrench segregation? Or is the segregation already there in residential living patterns?
<p style="margin-top: 1em">We compared the current levels of racial and income segregation in DC to alternative scenarios where everyone got his or her first choice (which would unrealistically require some schools to be far, far larger) and where everyone went to his or her neighborhood school (though in reality, not everyone would attend that school in the absence of choice; some families would move or choose private schools).
<p style="margin-top: 1em">It turns out that the existing policy results in less segregation by race for middle schools than if every student simply attended the in-boundary neighborhood school.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">What if everyone could attend their most preferred school (ignoring any space limitations)? This would not increase racial segregation. Rather, the analysis showed nearly the same amount of racial segregation as the current policy or perhaps slightly lower.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">We repeated this exercise, but removed the lowest-performing schools as school choice options to simulate a policy that directs more students toward high-performing schools. In this case, we found again that racial segregation would not increase under these circumstances, but fall further, to a value of 68 on a scale where 100 is the most segregated and 0 is the least
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016', '33297')" href="https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/racialseg.png" style="border: 0"></a></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In addition to racial segregation, we looked at segregation of students by income level (low-income versus non-low-income). using the same type of metric, this time with students who are certified as low-income versus all other students. The overall segregation level by income was only 41 under the current policy, but interestingly, that level is even greater than it would have been if students had simply attended their neighborhood schools.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">However, we found that if everyone could attend their most preferred schools, it would result in segregation by income roughly equivalent to a policy of no school choice (32 points, just one point lower than with neighborhood schools).
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016', '33297')" href="https://mathematica-mpr.com/news/school-choice-in-dc-june-2016" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/incomeseg.png" style="border: 0"></a></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">These findings for race and income segregation looked slightly different for families applying to elementary and high school, where the context is different in terms of both the applicants and the diversity of schools they are applying to. For example, white and Hispanic families' own-race preference was stronger among applicants to elementary schools, as <a href="/www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2016/07/when_white_parents_have_a_choice_they_choose_segregated_schools.html" style="color: black">emphasized in a recent Slate article</a>, than applicants to middle and high schools.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Nevertheless, choice policies that expand seats at popular schools were predicted to reduce segregation by both race and income in elementary schools. For high schools, neighborhood school assignment was predicted to lower both types of segregation compared to the current policy (school choice with a lottery for oversubscribed schools).
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Again, choice with no cap on the number of accepted applicants and removal of the lowest-performing schools always results in the lowest indices of both race and income segregation (this assumes it would be possible to increase capacity at individual campuses).
<p style="margin-top: 1em">What is consistent between all levels of school is that policies which let all students into their first choice (the two blue bars in the graphs above) led to the lowest segregation. For high schools, putting everyone into the neighborhood school (purple bar) also lowered segregation compared to the current policy.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Parents in DC are not race-blind, nor do they ignore the socio-economic status of their children's potential peers. But they also are sensitive to distance and indicators of academic quality. There are also numerous unmeasured determinants of choice.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Based on the data we have available, though, we don't see evidence that the worst fears of choice opponents are true. That is, we don't see evidence that school choice by itself worsens the level of school segregation produced by residential patterns.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">However, we also don't see choice as a very powerful mechanism for voluntary desegregation. There remains much work to be done to understand the impacts of choice on equity and access to quality schooling for the most disadvantaged. We also need to <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.mathematica-mpr.com/our-publications-and-findings/projects/parent-info-school-choice', '33297')" href="https://www.mathematica-mpr.com/our-publications-and-findings/projects/parent-info-school-choice" style="color: black">better understand how disadvantaged families access information</a> about school options.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The model in this study, however, provides a <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-school-lottery-may-cause-parental-anxiety-but-it-is-a-research-gold-mine/2016/07/11/bbad52a2-4533-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html?postshare=5821468329798810&tid=ss_tw#comments', '33297')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-school-lottery-may-cause-parental-anxiety-but-it-is-a-research-gold-mine/2016/07/11/bbad52a2-4533-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html?postshare=5821468329798810&tid=ss_tw#comments" style="color: black">promising tool for leveraging data</a> to predict the effects of policy changes on sorting of students across schools throughout the city.<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33297/what-do-parents-want-a-good-school-not-too-far-and-some-other-kids-that-look-like-them/#comments">5 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=33297Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:25:00 EDTDC has almost no white residents without college degrees. (It's a different story for black residents.)http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33197/dc-has-almost-no-white-residents-without-college-degrees-its-a-different-story-for-black-residents/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/alpert/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Alpert</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">One of FiveThirtyEight's <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election/', '33197')" href="http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election/" style="color: black">great interactive features</a> looks at voters in different groups (college educated whites, Hispanics, etc.) and their effect on the Electoral College. One part graphs each group and its prevalence in various states. This graph really stuck out for how unusual DC is:
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:335px; margin: 25px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election/', '33197')" href="http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncw538.png" style="border: 0"></a><br>Image from FiveThirtyEight.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The X axis here is how much people vote Democratic versus Republican. It's no shocker that people in DC, regardless of race or education level, overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. That's not especially relevant to this discussion. But the Y axis is how prevalent each group is in the electorate; this graph is saying that non-college-educated whites make up only 2% of DC's electorate.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Now, when you graph DC against the 50 states, it often looks like an outlier since it's far more urban than any state. Even so, that percentage of non-college-educated white voters is remarkably small. 2%???
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Is that typical of other center cities? In a word, not at all. Here's the percentage of non-Hispanic white residents over 25<sup>1</sup> who lack a college degree for select center cities (since New York City is big, I included both all of New York and just Manhattan<sup>2</sup>):
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; margin: 25px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncwcities.png" style="border: 0"></a><br>Graphs by the author with data from the Census' 2012 5-year American Community Survey.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">For DC, that's 11%. That's super low. Low is good&mdash;<wbr>but it's not low for all groups.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>There's a huge chasm between white and black when it comes to education</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">DC's high level of education among its white residents does not translate to African-Americans. Here is the proportions of whites and blacks without a college education in the same center cities:
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:498px; margin: 25px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncwbcities.png" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">These numbers are heart-breakingly high in all the cities. African-Americans, especially in center cities, lack educational opportunities at a tragic rate, perpetuating cycles of generational poverty that America has trapped them in for the nation's entire history (cf. slavery, Jim Crow, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30708/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living/', '33197')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30708/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living/" style="color: black">racial covenants</a>, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/', '33197')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/" style="color: black">redlining</a>, etc.)
<p style="margin-top: 1em">To be sure, as in other center cities, DC has a significant black middle and professional class who have access to good jobs. But while most cities have some blacks with opportunity and (more) blacks without, and whites with and (fewer) without, in DC, that fourth category is basically absent.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">No major center city does much better on black education levels. San Jose is a little lower, but not much, and its population is only 3.07% black. Does the racial makeup of a city seem to correlate with education levels? Not really:
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:467px; margin: 25px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncrcities.png" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>What about in our region?</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">This effect isn't the same outside center cities. Here are the same graphs for major jurisdictions in our region<sup>2</sup>:
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; margin: 25px auto; margin-bottom: 40px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncwregion.png" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; margin: 25px auto 40px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncwbregion.png" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Again, DC has the widest gap between black and white, but Arlington isn't far behind (while being far whiter). Howard and Loudoun have the lowest percentage of black residents without bachelor's degrees; Loudoun is only 7% black, but Howard is a somewhat more respectable 17%.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Still, as the scatter plot here shows (and which won't be much surprise to many of you), there are really only three counties in the region with large black populations, and they're geographically adjacent.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; margin: 25px auto; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/ncrregion.png" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The two besides DC&mdash;<wbr>Prince George's and Charles&mdash;<wbr>have little difference in the educational attainment level between blacks and whites (and same for the least diverse county in this list, Frederick). In DC, there's a great gulf.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">If you want to play with the data, you can download the Census tables for <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002H/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002H/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000" style="color: black">white</a>, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002B/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002B/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000" style="color: black">black</a>, and <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/DP05/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/DP05/0400000US11|0500000US36061|312M100US120601304000|312M100US125802404000|312M100US144602507000|312M100US169801714000|312M100US191004819000|312M100US264204835000|312M100US311000644000|312M100US356203651000|312M100US379804260000|312M100US400605167000|312M100US418600667000|312M100US419400668000|312M100US426605363000" style="color: black">total population</a> for the selected cities; and <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002H/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002H/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510" style="color: black">white</a>, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002B/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/C15002B/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510" style="color: black">black</a>, and <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/DP05/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510', '33197')" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_5YR/DP05/0500000US11001|0500000US24017|0500000US24021|0500000US24027|0500000US24031|0500000US24033|0500000US51013|0500000US51059|0500000US51107|0500000US51153|0500000US51510" style="color: black">total population</a> for regional jurisdictions.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">What do you notice?
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="caption" style="text-align: left"><sup>1</sup> The Census uses the population over 25 for this, presumably because many people under 25 don't yet have college degrees only due to their age.
<br>
<sup>2</sup> Aka New York County, NY.
<br>
<sup>3</sup> Sorry, small independent cities of Northern Virginia; in this analysis, you're not different enough from your adjacent counties to warrant inclusion.</div><p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33197/dc-has-almost-no-white-residents-without-college-degrees-its-a-different-story-for-black-residents/#comments">81 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=33197Mon, 29 Aug 2016 10:20:00 EDTDiscrimination in Charm Cityhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33174/police-discrimination-in-baltimore/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/jpierce/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Joanne Pierce</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Baltimore police routinely <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-doj-report-20160809-story.html', '33174')" href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-doj-report-20160809-story.html" style="color: black">target and retaliate against black residents</a>, leading to mistrust and adversarial relations with the community, says a DOJ report. Over 5 years, about 44% of pedestrian stops happened in just 2 parts of the city, where most residents are African-American. (Baltimore Sun)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33174/police-discrimination-in-baltimore/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=33174Wed, 10 Aug 2016 09:00:00 EDTNine provocative reads on race, equity, and urbanismhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33022/nine-provocative-reads-on-race-equity-and-urbanism/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/acustis/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Aimee Custis</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Race and equity have a fundamental impact on life in urban places. Even when they're big, hairy, and uncomfortable, these issues are worth discussing and writing about.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">With that in mind, here are nine provocative articles for urbanists (or anyone!) on the intersections of race, equity, policy, and life in urban places.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeophotos/13695643814/', '33022')" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeophotos/13695643814/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201608/031653.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Photo by Julian Ortiz on Flickr.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Everything on this list is an article (not a book), so the time commitment is relatively short.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In putting together this list, several people told me they disagreed with one of the articles, or that an article made them feel uncomfortable or challenged their long-held assumptions. Including each was intentional on my part, though the viewpoints in the articles don't always represent my own, or those of Greater Greater Washington.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>1. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/', '33022')" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/" style="color: black">The Case for Reparations</a></b>
<br>
<i class="closer_lines">Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic</i>
<br>
One of the longer reads on this list, The Case for Reparations is a look at the history of discriminatory housing policies and exploitative markets in America. Despite the title, reparations aren't totally the point. Instead, Coates uses reparations to show that if we truly confronted the history and realities of racism in the US, it would mean a really big shift in how we live and act today.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">If you read only one article on this list, make it The Case for Reparations.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>2. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/what-white-america-fails-to-see.html', '33022')" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/what-white-america-fails-to-see.html" style="color: black">Death in Black and White</a></b>
<br>
<i class="closer_lines">Michael Eric Dyson - The New York Times</i>
<br>
An essay on the dynamics of white privilege and the white viewpoint in the context of modern America published following the shooting deaths of Alton B. Sterling and Philando Castile.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>3. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.npr.org/2015/05/14/406699264/historian-says-dont-sanitize-how-our-government-created-the-ghettos', '33022')" href="http://www.npr.org/2015/05/14/406699264/historian-says-dont-sanitize-how-our-government-created-the-ghettos" style="color: black">Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos</a></b>
<br>
<i class="closer_lines">NPR Fresh Air (audio option)</i>
<br>
An interview with Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute on the history of residential segregation as explicit and racially-purposeful policy legislated into existence at all levels of government in the US.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>4. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/how-your-parents-affect-your-chances-of-buying-a-home/', '33022')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/how-your-parents-affect-your-chances-of-buying-a-home/" style="color: black">How your parents affect your chances of buying a home</a></b>
<br>
<i class="closer_lines">Emily Badger - Washington Post Wonkblog</i>
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A super-easy read by the prolific Emily Badger, formerly of CityLab and now at the Washington Post. Until I was compiling this list, I didn't realize how <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/emily-badger', '33022')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/emily-badger" style="color: black">extensively</a> Badger has written on these issues - chances are, you've probably missed this or another good read from her.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>5. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://thsppl.com/i-racist-538512462265#.uqbsdklgt', '33022')" href="https://thsppl.com/i-racist-538512462265#.uqbsdklgt" style="color: black">I, Racist</a></b>
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<i class="closer_lines">John Metta - <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://thsppl.com/', '33022')" href="https://thsppl.com/" style="color: black">Those People</a></i>
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A discussion and context on the pervasiveness structural racism in modern America, from urban policies to social systems to culture and beyond that challenges some of our ingrained unconscious beliefs head-on.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>6. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12136140/black-all-lives-matter', '33022')" href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12136140/black-all-lives-matter" style="color: black">Why you should stop saying "all lives matter," explained in 9 different ways</a></b>
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<i class="closer_lines">German Lopez - Vox</i>
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Tools for understanding (or explaining) the conflict between #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>7. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/eviction-matthew-desmond-housing/471375/', '33022')" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/eviction-matthew-desmond-housing/471375/" style="color: black">America's Insidious Eviction Problem</a></b>
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<i class="closer_lines">Gillian B. White - The Atlantic</i>
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An on-the-ground look at how the practice of removing tenants from their homes is exacerbating cycles of poverty, especially among minorities and women.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>8. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/289201-black-lives-matter-and-blue-lives-matter-are-not-mutually', '33022')" href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/289201-black-lives-matter-and-blue-lives-matter-are-not-mutually" style="color: black">Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter are not mutually exclusive</a></b>
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<i class="closer_lines">Major Neill Franklin (Ret.) - The Hill</i>
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A brief explanation of the decades of urban policies and funding that have bolstered militarized civilian policing, and how we got to where we are today.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>9. <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of-highways-in-american-poverty/474282/', '33022')" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of-highways-in-american-poverty/474282/" style="color: black">The Role of Highways in American Poverty</a></b>
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<i class="closer_lines">Alana Semuels - The Atlantic</i>
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A history of the use of federal funds to build highways through most American cities, exploring specifically the economic effects that highways had and continue to have on our cities, especially in relation to people of color.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><i class="closer_lines">If you have a topic or article suggestion for a future GGWash reading list, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('mailto:acustis@ggwash.org', '33022')" href="/mailto:acustis@ggwash.org" style="color: black">email the author</a>. If you have a suggestion on GGWash's growing conversation on equity, race, and class, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('mailto:info@ggwash.org', '33022')" href="/mailto:info@ggwash.org" style="color: black">email GGWash</a>.</i>
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<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33022/nine-provocative-reads-on-race-equity-and-urbanism/#comments">18 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=33022Mon, 08 Aug 2016 10:11:00 EDTHow do our cities' decisions perpetuate racial bias? How do the choices we advocate for?http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/32778/how-do-our-cities-decisions-perpetuate-racial-bias-how-do-the-choices-we-advocate-for/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/alpert/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Alpert</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">America's struggles with gun violence and police relations with communities of color have burst, again, into the headlines over the last few weeks. Our contributors and editors have some thoughts about these issues and how they relate to the decisions our cities make around housing, transportation, and much more.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/27864095560/', '32778')" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/27864095560/" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201607/180926.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Aftermath of the Philando Castile shooting. Photo by Tony Webster on Flickr.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner. Sandra Bland. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. These and so many more incidents have repeatedly underscored how our society still doesn't truly treat black Americans equally. Americans who don't experience this injustice personally have had their eyes opened. And then, the occasional person reacts with reprehensible violence against the police and drives further wedges between Americans (most recently in Baton Rouge, previously in Dallas).
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Not every social problem is related to the way we build cities and better urban design can't single-handedly solve some of America's deepest social ills. Still, our society's struggles with racial bias, whether from police or others, actually is deeply connected with the way American cities work and the decisions their leaders make. Here are some of our contributors' thoughts.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Dan Reed said,<blockquote style="font-style: normal"><i>This is about who feels safe and who public spaces are created for. We haven't experienced the worst of this here, but we've had a tumultuous demographic shift in recent years. As a person of color who grew up here, I feel unwelcome sometimes in a place that was once familiar.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">This isn't just about police brutality. It's about the pervasiveness of racial bias, however subtle or unintentional, that appears in all of the policy decisions we make in education, transportation, housing, health care, and so on. It's about making sure that everyone in our community the ability to live safe, dignified lives with access to the economic and social opportunities that many of us take for granted.</i></blockquote>Gray Kimbrough discussed how public policy has explicitly created divisions:<blockquote style="font-style: normal"><i>The built environment has long been intertwined with racism in the US. Housing policy is a clear example, with the underlying racism ranging from completely blatant redlining or other policies that excluded non-whites (e.g. the postwar explosion in VA and FHA-backed loans).</i></blockquote><div style="background-color: #ccc; padding: 0.6em 1em; font-style: italic;">Read more in GGWash:<ul class="less_space"><li><A href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30708/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living/" style="color: black">Where DC used to bar black people from living</a><li><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/', '32778')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/" style="color: black">Look how real estate professionals in 1948 perpetuated segregation in DC</a></div><blockquote style="font-style: normal"><i>And then there's infrastructure. Growing up in North Carolina, I noticed that things like sidewalks were much less likely to be provided in predominantly black parts of town. Transportation infrastructure and transit networks have often also been used to maintain the status quo rather than to mitigate the impact of institutional racism.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Limiting the housing options for people of color and underfunding infrastructure in those areas contribute directly to limiting opportunities for whole classes of people. As a side effect, racial segregation of housing limits people's experiences with members of other groups.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">This tends not to be a problem for white people, who generally don't have to fear police officers unfamiliar with people like them acting in overly aggressive ways. It can absolutely have devastating effects for people of color when police officers are more likely to see them as criminals by default, at least in part because of a lack of basic interaction due to residential segregation.</i></blockquote>Nick Keenan added some specific policy examples:<blockquote style="font-style: normal"><i>It ties into two things I've read about Ferguson [Missouri]. One is that people in Ferguson were reluctant to walk places, even short distances, because they were afraid of being hassled by the police if they did. The other is that the municipal budget in Ferguson was dependent upon fines and fees from motorists, and that a grievance of the residents was that you couldn't drive anywhere without risking getting pulled over and ticketed for a minor infraction.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Many experienced cyclists have stories of interactions with police officers where just the fact of operating a bicycle seemed to set the cops off. There was <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://alittlemoresauce.com/2014/08/20/what-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege', '32778')" href="http://alittlemoresauce.com/2014/08/20/what-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege" style="color: black">a blog post last summer</a> that got a lot of coverage about how for many people riding a bicycle is the closest they will ever come to not having white privilege.</i></blockquote>Tracy Hadden Loh added,<blockquote style="font-style: normal"><i>It's all about who has access to what planning processes - whose outcomes are measured, voices are heard, values represented, needs prioritized, etc. Planning is all about navigating tradeoffs to maximize access and efficiency of public goods in a world where most of the acreage/square footage is private. ...
<p style="margin-top: 1em">We [all] have our own often unstated assumptions about *how* to achieve planning goals [and] I don't think [we] ask enough hard questions about who the winners and losers will be.</i></blockquote>Let's try hard to think about who winners and losers will be as we discuss the many choices cities and counties in our region make. How do the events of the last few weeks, and few years, affect how you think about urban spaces and the issues we discuss?<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/32778/how-do-our-cities-decisions-perpetuate-racial-bias-how-do-the-choices-we-advocate-for/#comments">21 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=32778Mon, 18 Jul 2016 12:18:00 EDTTodayhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/32595/today/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/dwhitehead/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Whitehead</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/sguidi/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Sarah Guidi</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/alpert/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Alpert</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/danreed/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Dan Reed</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/jneeley/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Jonathan Neeley</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/erussell/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Edward Russell</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/mcjohnson/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Matt Johnson</span></a>, <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/acustis/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Aimee Custis</span></a>, and <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/srepetski/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Stephen Repetski</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">In the last 72 hours, <a href=https://www.google.com/#q=alton+sterling style="color: black">Alton Sterling</a> and <a href=https://www.google.com/#q=philando+castile style="color: black">Philando Castile</a> were killed by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and <strike>Minneapolis</strike> a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, and then a sniper killed five police officers in Dallas. These tragic deaths, on the heels of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando last month, have left us reeling.
<div class="blog_image_right" style="width: 163px; float: right; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201607/081446.png" style="border: 0"><br>This space left blank.</div><p style="margin-top: 1em">At its core, Greater Greater Washington is about creating more livable communities and cities. Normally, we do this by discussing transportation, housing, development, public spaces, and other elements that make our cities better places to live.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Today, though we wanted to take a moment to pause and acknowledge that a basic prerequisite before we can even begin to talk about "livable cities" is to preserve human lives, and our society did not succeed for the victims of these events.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">We invite you to take a moment, too. We don't want violence like this to go unmarked in our personal lives or in the communities we want to help make better. <p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/32595/today/#comments">21 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=32595Fri, 08 Jul 2016 15:15:00 EDTThe shunning economyhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30936/the-shunning-economy/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/ptimko/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Peter Timko</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">A Virginia man <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/top-shelf/2016/05/airbnb-faces-class-action-lawsuit-led-by-virginia.html', '30936')" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/top-shelf/2016/05/airbnb-faces-class-action-lawsuit-led-by-virginia.html" style="color: black">filed a discrimination lawsuit against Airbnb</a> after being denied a room rental. Gregory Selden, who is black, alleges his requests were only accepted after creating accounts with white profile pictures. (WBJ)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30936/the-shunning-economy/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=30936Wed, 25 May 2016 08:41:00 EDTWhere DC used to bar black people from livinghttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30708/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/alpert/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Alpert</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">One of many pieces of America's shameful racial past was when racial covenants forbade people in certain areas from selling their houses to an African-American family. DC had these in several neighborhoods, particularly Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Petworth, Park View, and Bloomingdale.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201605/051219.jpg" style="border: 0"></div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">According to <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091', '30708')" href="http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091" style="color: black">Mapping Segregation in Washington DC</a>, an interactive map created last year by a group called <A href="http://prologuedc.com/blog/mapping-segregation" style="color: black">Prologue DC</a>, covenants took two forms throughout the first half of the 20th century: restrictions in the property's deed, often set up by the developer when building a set of row houses, or an agreement that neighborhood activists would circulate as a petition around a neighborhood.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width: 500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091', '30708')" href="http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201605/covenants.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Lots with racial covenants in DC. All maps by Brian Kraft/JMT.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">As the interactive map's text explains, covenants like these did more than just bar African-Americans. Covenants in some areas also prohibited Jews&mdash;<wbr>"In DC this was more common west of Rock Creek Park," says the text.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">These effectively kept black residents out of many neighborhoods through the early twentieth century, as this map of the area around Columbia Heights shows.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width: 500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091', '30708')" href="http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201605/covenants2.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Lots with restrictions (purple) and the percentage of non-white residents (darker = more non-white), 1934.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Many covenants imposed other limits as well, like requiring "that only single-family houses be constructed or that buildings be a certain distance from the street. They also might prohibit use of the property as a school, factory, or saloon." As Ben Ross explains, covenant limits on building size and use <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23196/dead-ends-how-zoning-embalmed-cities/', '30708')" href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23196/dead-ends-how-zoning-embalmed-cities/" style="color: black">is the forerunner of modern zoning</a>.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>Covenants fall and segregation takes new forms</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Black homeowners and groups like the NAACP challenged these restrictions&mdash;<wbr>often unsuccessfully&mdash;<wbr>in lawsuits from the turn of the century until finally winning the seminal Supreme Court case, Shelley v. Kraemer, in 1948, and a corresponding case in DC, Hurd v. Hodge (which used a federal civil rights law instead of the Fourteenth Amendment since DC is not a state).
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width: 500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091', '30708')" href="http://jmt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=061d0da22587475fb969483653179091" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201605/black1930.jpg" style="border: 0">&nbsp;<img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201605/black1960.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>Percentage of black residents by Census tract, 1930 (left) and 1960 (right). Darker colors signify more black residents.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">In the years after legal restrictions fell, the percentage of black residents in nearby neighborhoods increased&mdash;<wbr>just what the covenants' creators and defenders, illegally and immorally, feared. Amid this shift, the end of legal school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and other civil rights advances, many white residents moved to the suburbs.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">There, whether intentionally or not, communities wrote <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/01/how-zoning-restrictions-make-segregation-worse/422352/', '30708')" href="http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/01/how-zoning-restrictions-make-segregation-worse/422352/" style="color: black">zoning rules</a> and <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.pennstatelawreview.org/print-issues/consolidation-versus-fragmentation-the-relationship-between-school-district-boundaries-and-segregation-in-three-southern-metropolitan-areas/', '30708')" href="http://www.pennstatelawreview.org/print-issues/consolidation-versus-fragmentation-the-relationship-between-school-district-boundaries-and-segregation-in-three-southern-metropolitan-areas/" style="color: black">school district boundaries</a> in ways that perpetuated de facto segregation.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>How covenants from the past still hurt people today</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">While this legal tactic is long gone, its effects remain. Emily Badger <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/how-your-parents-affect-your-chances-of-buying-a-home/', '30708')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/how-your-parents-affect-your-chances-of-buying-a-home/" style="color: black">wrote about a study</a> of how young black people are far less likely than their white and Hispanic peers to get help from their parents to afford the down payment on a home. Each generation invests in real estate and gains wealth in doing so, which it then uses to help the next generation&mdash;<wbr>except if, a few generations ago, residents and the government stopped your ancestors from getting some wealth in the first place.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Badger writes, "Historic disparities in the housing market are transmitted over time, from parent to child to grandchild. Earlier generations of blacks were excluded from homeownership by lending practices and government policies, and as a result those generations didn't accumulate the housing wealth that enabled them to pass money onto their children."
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Or, as she put it pithily on Twitter:<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-partner="tweetdeck"><i><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://twitter.com/DaniDougPost', '30708')" href="https://twitter.com/DaniDougPost" style="color: black">@DaniDougPost</a> I bought a house in DC, which was possible only thanks to 2 things: a VA loan, and family inheritance.</p>&mdash;<wbr>Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728251178149019648', '30708')" href="https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728251178149019648" style="color: black">May 5, 2016</a></i></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-partner="tweetdeck"><i><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And the money that passed on to me came directly from a good govt job that was not equally accessible to blacks in his time.</p>&mdash;<wbr>Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728251757227216898', '30708')" href="https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728251757227216898" style="color: black">May 5, 2016</a></i></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-partner="tweetdeck"><i><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you&#39;re trying to buy a home, I highly recommend having a grandparent who was white in 1940.</p>&mdash;<wbr>Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728253157264871425', '30708')" href="https://twitter.com/emilymbadger/status/728253157264871425" style="color: black">May 5, 2016</a></i></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><i>Correction: The initial version of this post identified some covenants as being in Truxton Circle, but they were actually in Bloomingdale. Also, a sentence has been updated to emphasize that the disadvantages to black residents came from a combination of both the government and private citizens.</i><p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30708/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living/#comments">33 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=30708Thu, 05 May 2016 15:10:00 EDTDelivery's race factorhttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30573/deliverys-race-factor/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/mgontarchick/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Matt Gontarchick</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">82% of DC's white residents live in <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-amazon-same-day/', '30573')" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-amazon-same-day/" style="color: black">areas with Amazon same-day delivery</a>, but only 43% of black residents are. While Amazon is probably not intentionally discriminating, this effect exacerbates <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11486672/amazon-prime-poor-neighborhoods', '30573')" href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11486672/amazon-prime-poor-neighborhoods" style="color: black">existing residential segregation patterns</a> in DC and other cities. (Bloomberg, Vox)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30573/deliverys-race-factor/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=30573Mon, 25 Apr 2016 08:53:00 EDTSame day for somehttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30559/same-day-for-some/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/bcasey/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Brendan Casey</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Amazon's same-day delivery service covers the entire city and some surrounding suburbs in most major US cities. But for a handful of cities, including DC, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-amazon-same-day/', '30559')" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-amazon-same-day/" style="color: black">predominantly black ZIP codes don't make the cut</a>. (Bloomberg, JJJ)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30559/same-day-for-some/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=30559Fri, 22 Apr 2016 08:50:00 EDTUber drivers aren't color blind?http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30089/uber-drivers-arent-color-blind/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/alpert/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">David Alpert</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">Waits for an Uber <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/10/uber-seems-to-offer-better-service-in-areas-with-more-white-people-that-raises-some-tough-questions/', '30089')" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/10/uber-seems-to-offer-better-service-in-areas-with-more-white-people-that-raises-some-tough-questions/" style="color: black">are shorter in whiter areas of DC</a>, even when accounting for income. Whiter areas also see more surge pricing (and higher prices), which pushes more cars there and shortens wait times. (Post)<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30089/uber-drivers-arent-color-blind/#comments">Comment</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=30089Mon, 14 Mar 2016 09:05:00 EDTLook how real estate professionals in 1948 perpetuated segregation in DChttp://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/
by <a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/nsflanagan/" style="color: black"><span class="byline_name">Neil Flanagan</span></a> <p style="margin-top: 1em">It wasn't that long ago that DC's Real Estate Board told agents not to sell homes in white areas to black people. A 1948 report called <i>Segregation in Washington</i> put the discrimination into plain language.
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<div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081633.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081633-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The problem in a picture. All images from the National Committee on Segregation in the Nation's Capital.</div>
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<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081633.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/segregation1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a></div><div class="blog_image" style="width: 500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081633.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/segregation2.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The problem in a picture. All images from the National Committee on Segregation in the Nation's Capital.</div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Segregation in DC looked a lot different in the early part of the century. There was plenty of racism, but legally DC retained a lot of strong Reconstruction-era civil rights laws. The result was that one block could be white and the next black. Or, in wealthier neighborhoods, the front of a block was white, while alley dwellings were black.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">But, the 1948 report claims, someone surreptitiously cut these laws from from the District Code at the turn of the century. This opened the door for realtors to use racial covenants, legal agreements that forbid selling a house to blacks forever. By the 1920s, these contracts were widespread. Southern-style segregation policies cropped up in other areas as well, especially after the Wilson administration segregated federal agencies.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081638.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081638-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The report covered racism in all aspects of life. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The realtor's code of ethics even included a rule saying "no property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, advertised, or offered to colored people."
<p style="margin-top: 1em">What often happened was that the supply of housing available to blacks got smaller. Both the white and black populations were growing, but most of the new housing was for whites.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Zoning, implemented in the 20s, favored detached single family homes. The city banned unsafe alley dwellings, but didn't create new housing for blacks. When apartment buildings went up in black neighborhoods, they often were whites-only.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1920s1948-Restrictive-Covenants.html', '28732')" href="http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1920s1948-Restrictive-Covenants.html" style="color: black">Covenants</a>, the report argues, appealed to the racism of white residents, who would pay extra to live in an "exclusive" neighborhood where the type of residents would be stable, familiar, and "high-class."
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Realtors and developers were happy to meet the market for these contracts. They discouraged smaller apartment buildings that were harder to regulate, and advertised the better value of a house with a covenant on it.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The result was simple: new houses for blacks cost 30% more, so fewer could afford them. Rents were higher. Blacks had a hard time getting loans for repairs. And so, African Americans took smaller apartments in older neighborhoods.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081635.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081635-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The booklet sees hypocrisy. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><b>More about the report</b>
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The report focused on housing segregation, but also covered similar practices in education, health, employment, and social life. Over twelve sections, the report charted how blacks and whites received unequal treatment in nearly every aspect of life, and how that took a toll on human lives. But, they argued, shrinking the supply of quality housing available to blacks was the root of the most corrosive social ills.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">Its punchy text, written by Kenesaw Mountain Landis (who is often confused with his uncle, a Major League Baseball commissioner who <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis', '28732')" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis" style="color: black">had the same name</a>), contained tables of facts, lurid stories, and humiliating anecdotes of foreigners disgusted by what they found blocks from the monuments. Infographics made dismal statistics like higher arrest rates and more expensive rents impossible to ignore.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">The report was hugely successful, introducing a topic to a wide audience. It <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2227&context=faculty_scholarship', '28732')" href="http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2227&context=faculty_scholarship" style="color: black">made space</a> for activists who had been fighting segregation for years. Old arguments got traction in the political scene. It challenged the clout of civic associations and developers. In neighborhoods, it was much harder to openly defend racial covenants, so tactics to preserve neighborhood character changed.
<p style="margin-top: 1em">It certainly didn't end housing discrimination. The effects of covenants, <a target="_blank" onClick="return countClick('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_v._Kraemer', '28732')" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_v._Kraemer" style="color: black">which were legal</a> until 1968, meant that black families had less wealth, even as they became the majority group in DC. Much of the issues behind gentrification and concentrated poverty are not hangovers from slavery, but were proactively made worse in the 20th century to preserve some residents' sense of neighborhood character.
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081638-2.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081638-3.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>A typical chapter. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081639.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081639-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The book predicted relocation of blacks east of the Anacostia. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081640.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081640-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The report argues that segregation made unsanitary conditions worse. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><div class="blog_image" style="width:500px; text-align: center; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="/image.cgi?src=201511/081641.jpg&ref=28732" style="color: black"><img src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201511/081641-1.jpg" style="border: 0"></a><br>The report lays blame on the real estate industry and citizens' associations. </div>
<p style="margin-top: 1em"><i class="closer_lines">Correction: The original version of this article said former baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote Segregation in Washington. His nephew, who had the same name, actually wrote it.</i><p style="margin-top: 1em"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28732/look-how-real-estate-professionals-in-1948-perpetuated-segregation-in-dc/#comments">38 comments</a></p>http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=28732Thu, 12 Nov 2015 10:40:00 EDT